FIRST teams are made of people - students and mentors. In my humble opinion, it doesn't make one iota of difference if the name of the sponsoring organization or the name of the school changes over time. - dlavery [more]

1197 has the near-exclusive use of a school district bobtail truck with a liftgate. Liftgate means that we can load/unload just about anywhere; the truck is big enough to transport everything we need for most events within its range and throw in a neighboring robot and pit. (District doesn't like it traveling too far out, but for events within range...)

We had clamp rails installed when it was built, so we can connect strap clamps. We had them installed slightly lower than 'normal' to have good placement on our tool boxes.

We built 3 shelves across the front for control boards and other small items. Most everything else is on a rolling cart that gets strapped in.

We purchased our trailer with team funds, but the trailer is considered property of the school district. It has school plates and it covered by school insurance.

Some suggestions:

Get an empty weight for the trailer, then get a loaded weight. Make sure you are not overloading the axles or the tow vehicle or hitch. Get an accurate tongue weight empty and loaded. You can easily do this at a truck scale, it is pretty inexpensive.

If you can afford the tandem, it is a safer and gives some added protection with a flat.

Keep a log sheet in the trailer for trips, so you know mileage for tires, bearings, brakes, etc.

Get a strip of LED lights and install them. Power off of a robot battery. Very helpful for loading. (We have interior lights, but they are only powered if the tow vehicle is running.)

Pay attention to loading. Make a load map so you know what goes where. Tongue weight is important for safe towing (should be about 15% or total trailer weight).

We have our team number painted on the roof.

We tow with a GMC Sierra, with a 6.2L and Heavy Duty towing package. Our loaded trailer is about 4500 pounds.

Load in at most events is easier with a trailer - in and out quickly. Load in and out in Detroit was long and slow, but it didn't matter if you had a van, a trailer or a bus.

We have a big 16x7 footer with a rear ramp door, purchased on a grant from Ingersoll Rand Foundation (one of our mentors used to work for them). We wouldn't need anything this big for moving things to events, but it is great on-site storage and (with the graphics) is a great billboard both on-campus and when we roll in parades. We're currently using it as a garage for a golf cart we're building into a major air cannon, and some field element pieces. It isn't too bad to get to suburban events, though I still don't know how I got it turned around in the St. Louis parking lot in 2015 when I hit a dead end. In our case, the booster club bought it with the grant and donated it to the school board, so they're covering licensing and liability insurance.
The team does not have a truck/van; we've been paying various mentors and coaches over the years for use of their full-size pickups when necessary. If we ever found ourselves without a mentor/coach with a truck, we did the math and figured that it would be much less expensive to rent a large pickup a few weekends a year than to maintain, license, and insure one, even if it were donated.

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__________________If you can't find time to do it right, how are you going to find time to do it over?If you don't pass it on, it never happened.Robots are great, but inspiration is the reason we're here.Friends don't let friends use master links.[Quoting brennonbrimhall]: We design a new robot every year, but we can't forget that we also design a new team every year as folks come and go.

Without a doubt. 5 events and 3 offseasons a year plus numerous demos. We couldn't do without it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dipmeinaluminum

Do teams have their coach bus tow their trailers?

No. Buses run into messes with trailers, not the least of which is inability to turn around: see this year's Detroit fiasco.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dipmeinaluminum

Knowing what you know now, what would you do differently?

I do NOT recommend the extra foot of height (above a normal walk in trailer). Initially it sounded great because tall folks wouldn't bump their head when entering and putting a tall robot on the robot cart and leaving it sounded great too.

However - in reality on windy days that extra foot makes the trailer blow around. Our previous 7x14 towed far better than this one - other than the 2 foot difference in length it had rounded edges instead of square and didn't have the extra foot of height. That's the size I recommend.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dipmeinaluminum

We went to Detroit, did you find it difficult to unload/load?

No.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dipmeinaluminum

What did you do with your car/trailer after load in for the weekend?

We drove our trailer up to one of our mentor's company's fenced in lot and left it (with permission). The truck we used to get to and from the hotel each day, and parked either on the roof or in the parking structure next to Cobo. Not once we did have trouble finding parking, so I'm chalking up the complaints for that to either not mapping out the parking structures in advance (and CALL to see if they are going to be opening) or just not knowing the city.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dipmeinaluminum

What kind of truck/suv is worth it?
(I’m pretty sure I don’t need to tow 33,000lbs)
(I’m looking at a 10hr drive from Brooklyn to Detroit)

Wheelbase, wheelbase, wheelbase. The longer the wheelbase on the tow vehicle, the better it will tow in a straight line. We tow with a full size F-150 crew cab with a 5.0L v8 (mine), or a full size Dodge ram with the eco-diesel. I've also towed with a twin turbo diesel suburban (the best tow vehicle I've used) to a GMC Yukon Denali. The Yukon was probably the worst of the group - it liked to wiggle around a bit too much for my taste.

If you want to go whole-hog you can use a weight distributing hitch setup. They are usually unnecessary for FIRST applications but if you have a smaller tow vehicle they can make up for a lot of mistakes.

Also - tongue weight on the trailer is very important. We've done this by hit or miss. Load up the trailer, usually with weight forward. Take it for a drive on the freeway with cars passing you. Adjust weight as necessary. Make a trailer loading map, laminate it, and put it on the wall inside the trailer.

Also - if you have a round nose or v-nose, front shelves are awesome. Mount the spare high on the internal wall out of the way, or on the tongue. I prefer inside the trailer so it doesn't rot. Wasps love to make nests inside spare wheel sun covers. Include an oversized jack with the trailer - most truck jacks aren't good for this application. Include lug wrench, breaker bar, hitch lock, and lockable wheel chocks (so they don't get stolen).

Overhead lights inside the trailer are helpful for late-night loadout.

EDIT:
Electric brakes are a must-have, especially if there's a chance you will drive in slippery conditions and you have a decent sized trailer. Any slippery conditions at all including rain or even gravel roads will result in drastically longer stopping conditions. Driving in heavy traffic also makes them necessary. The first time someone pulls close in front of you you'll realize how important they are. Surge / hydraulic brakes are all well and good, but too often they result in the trailer "pushing" the tow vehicle right around into a jackknife, or lengthening the stopping distance too much. Along with the electric brakes you'll want an electric brakeaway device and a built in rechargeable battery for the breakaway system. Make sure it is self-charging and has an easy-to-access external self test.

We have a 6x12 single axle v-nose trailer. Which means we cannot put 973's pit in it, but it works for our purposes. I have towed it with my 940 turbo Volvo. It pulled OK, but lite on brakes. something truck based is definitely a better tow vehicle. If you rent something, make sure.the contract has towing allowed. Many rental agency prohibit towing.

The trailer makes a useful staging space for outreach events outside of school hours.

__________________
If you don't know what you should hook up then you should read a data sheet

We have an enclosed equipment trailer, something around 7x18ft, with tandem axles and electronic brakes. It's maybe 1klbs empty and 2-3klbs loaded. We added a number of tie-downs inside, and will likely add several more. It has been a phenomenal asset to have a nice, solid, trailer.

Since many of the trailer-specific things have been covered well, I'll talk about tow vehicles. I've towed it with a Toyota Tacoma, Ram 1500, Ram 2500 HD, Honda Ridgeline, and maybe an F150 (we've used it for many years now). They towed something in the 3k weight range without drama. The Ram 2500HD was hilarious overkill and the Tacoma/Ridgeline were comfortable. The other vehicles ranged somewhere in between.

I can talk about cars/trucks for all day and half the night... so I'll try to keep it short. Lexus GX470 Sport: 8 seats, 5k-6.5k tow capacity, tow package pre-wired for 7-pin brake controller, comfortable, handles stupidly well because of KDSS, mid-size SUV so it's not a total gas pig/behemoth to park, global chassis/lots of available parts, one of the most reliable vehicles ever made, and durable as all get-out. I picked up a fully-loaded 2006 Sport for ~$10k last November and love it. It has 185k on it and I cannot believe how well everything on it has held up. For the money and for what I wanted to get out of a tow/family/robotics/off-roading/winter DD vehicle I could not find anything better. Having 8 seats available at an event to ferry kids around has been awesome too.

Whatever you do though, get a backup camera. It makes hitching up super easy. I cannot believe I towed for years without one, and I will never go back!

__________________
Theory is a nice place, I'd like to go there one day, I hear everything works there.

Maturity is knowing you were an idiot, common sense is trying to not be an idiot, wisdom is knowing that you will still be an idiot.

We are using a small 6x8 round nose trailer that we bought used in 2012 for $1,000 I painted it with donated paint and had our school graphics department print decals that I installed. We use a wheel chair ramp for loading and unloading.
We went with the small trailer so it could be hauled with a mini van not requiring us or the school to own a full size vehicle.

The size limitations of the trailer requires us to be creative in not only loading, but in designing pit equipment so it all fits. The equipment size however, translates into pit sixe management as well.

Several times a year we get someone from another team that makes the comment of how we get all of that into a trailer that size.

We have a 6x12 single axle v-nose that our team purchased in 2017 with community grant money. We can definitely say it has been worth it. We use it about 6-8 times a year hauling "our version" of 973's super pit. With the trailer fully loaded, we can easily fit our pit, competition robot, practice robot, and robot cart with some extra space. Our tow vehicle, which is owned by a mentor is a 2011 Chevy 1500 with a tow package and heavy duty trans cooler. It tows the trailer with no problem. We also enjoy using the trailer as a billboard in parades and community events. Frequently, we will use it for our bottle can drive fundraiser. One thing we would of done differently thought, is to purchase a trailer with tandem axles.

We're also in the 6x12 single axle v-nose camp. Hauls our whole pit setup with not much extra room. Every time we load up, I think about how much I'd love a bigger trailer, but the reality is that we don't have any space in our pit for more things anyway!

I tow with my 2007 Tacoma Pre-runner with towing package--6500 lbs towing capacity. It performs just fine on short hauls but cruise control is basically not an option with a fully loaded trailer...it can't figure out how to handle hills. This is something I've heard from a lot of Tacoma owners who tow. On long runs (we've done up to 6 hours), not being able to use cruise control is a pretty big bummer. When its time to replace my truck, I'm very torn as to whether or not I'll step up to full-sized or stay in mid-size. I've heard some pretty positive reviews of the latest Colorado...

I'm seeing lots of support for tandem axle trailers in this thread and I'd like to add some counterpoints for the benefits of single axle. First, in the event of a small-scale demo where you only need to bring the robot and a couple of ancillary items, you can hook up to a larger variety of vehicles like smaller SUVs and don't have to worry about a brake controller. In the offseason, it's very nice for to have some team representatives out doing outreach while you're, ya know, spending time with your family, etc. If you've got the only tow rig around, you're locked in to being anywhere the trailer needs to be. Also, we've had to get the trailer into and out of some tight spots for various reasons and a small single axle trailer is a lot easier to deal with.

Dear Mentors who deal with your teams transportation,
Iím thinking of upgrading to a truck or SUV and in addition, getting a trailer.
What size trailers do you use?
Do you find it worth it?
Do teams have their coach bus tow their trailers?
Knowing what you know now, what would you do differently?

We went to Detroit, did you find it difficult to unload/load?
What did you do with your car/trailer after load in for the weekend?

If you donít trailer, how do teams bring in their ďsuper pitsĒ?
What kind of truck/suv is worth it?
(Iím pretty sure I donít need to tow 33,000lbs)
(Iím looking at a 10hr drive from Brooklyn to Detroit)

Maybe youíre selling your truck/trailer, hit me up!

Kids, ask your mentors how do they do it.

-Thank you in advance

I am a teacher and a coach for our school run teams 3134 and 3275. The transportation dept. supplies us with a van we can use; 2015 Ford Transit 150 with a eco boost or a 2015 chevy 2500 express. (the 150 is a little light on springs, but plenty of power. the Chevy is just the opposite). With departmental funds and some other $$ we were able to get a 16ft v front enclosed aluminum trailer with a fold down ramp. Our new pits are huge and heavy so we use almost all of that space. Fully loaded i estimate we are around 5,000 to 6,000 lbs.

I own a 2009 Toyota Tundra Pickup that we use to pull a worn-out, but free trailer that our vocal music was no longer using since they upgraded to a better trailer. After several years of lifting things up into the trailer, I finally bought a couple of 2x10s and hardware from Tractor Supply so that we could have ramps. Made all the difference for loading.

Prior to obtaining the truck, we used school district suburbans to tow the trailer.

Last year we went down to Houston for the Championship, to save a little money, since we were renting two 15 passenger vans from a company here in the OK/TX area called Capps Van Rental, we actually towed the trailer with the rental van as they come equipped for towing. Depending on where you are, finding a company to rent from may be more economical than purchasing a vehicle, unless you plan on utilizing the vehicle for other purposes.

We get by with a fairly small trailer, about 6 feet high by 5 feet wide by 7 feet long, with 8.3 feet at the tip. We need to get creative with packing, but everything fits fairly well. The attached photo shows the first layer (batteries are (B)). We add pit 'structure' and team spirit items on top or below these parts.

While we are thinking about a larger trailer for ease of use, the nice thing about this one is we can tow it with whatever vehicle is available. I usually borrow my older son's 2002 Dodge Dakota (120K miles) and it has no problems. A Subaru took it to and from a competition four hours away earlier this season.

Once you have a trailer with E-track running down the sides, you'll have the opportunity to install receptacles for load bars. These are simple devices for locating your load exactly where you want it in the vehicle, completely preventing gross movement under high acceleration, and providing structure to ratchet up against.

In our implementation, load bars are just 2x4s which have been cut to length and placed in the receptacles. We can place the receptacles anywhere along the E-track.

This photo from tonight shows our load bar implementation for this weekend's demo at the Langley AFB airshow.

Edited 5/19 to add:
Sometimes you think you've got your stuff together, and the universe reminds you that you still have a lot to learn.